


we burned bright

by Lost Soul Here (naterkins)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Drabble Series, F/M, Romance, just take what my emotions created
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-30
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-11-19 21:44:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/577977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naterkins/pseuds/Lost%20Soul%20Here
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They move carefully, cautiously, delicately, unwilling to disturb the balance but willing to push the limits. A collection of Zuko/Katara drabbles. Occasionally AU, mostly post-war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. a very important male bonding trip

“They make a good couple, don’t they?” Sokka says offhandedly. He and Zuko are one of their Very Important Male Bonding Trips, even though the war ended a year ago.  
  
Zuko shrugs his shoulders. “I guess. Katara is all Aang ever talked about during the war, and she was the first thing he saw when he woke up in an iceberg in the South Pole, and—”  
  
“You know, I was hoping she’d choose you,” Sokka says abruptly.  
  
Zuko looks at his hands— _your hands are really warm_ , he remembers—and says, “So did I.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got over my writing slump, mostly because of a Tumblr ask box meme that Like A Dove reblogged (the prompt was to use their OTP against them and make them cry, or something similar). You can find my submissions floating around her Tumblr somewhere. (I had to work with the dumb Tumblr ask box 500-character limit, so this one is short and fits the technical definition of a drabble.)
> 
> So this is what happened. I wrote more and will be publishing it soon. c:


	2. unyielding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko has always come to his uncle for advice and received unsolicited tea.

It's almost poetic, really. He's sitting across the table from his uncle, staring into a cup of soothing jasmine tea (not that Zuko likes tea because he would never, ever, _ever_ admit that aloud) and asking for advice, just like he's been doing since he was thirteen years old. Except this time Zuko has been Fire Lord for three years and Katara is engaged to Aang.  
  
Iroh sighs and pours tea into his cup. "Nephew, I don't understand what you're trying—"  
  
"Neither do I, Uncle. That's why I'm here," Zuko blurts out. "I shouldn't be feeling this way anymore. She's engaged to the _Avatar_ , for Agni's sake, and everyone expects me to marry Mai, and it's been two years, why do I still feel this way?" His knuckles are white, he's holding the red-painted table so tightly, and smoke curls from beneath his fingers.  
  
"I understand that you still feel this way, Zuko, but you must think about what your actions could do to others. Think about Mai and what happened the last time you left her," Iroh says gravely, not even touching his steaming cup of tea.  
  
"I _know_ , Uncle, I know this is the most selfish thing I've ever done, but I lo—"  
  
Iroh cuts him off with a shake of his head. "No, Zuko. You cannot do this again. I have supported you in the past, giving you advice and that special tea—" Zuko's cheeks pink slightly "—but this is an _engagement_. It's the last step before something permanent, and I will not be an accomplice in ruining that."  
  
Zuko all but stops breathing, his eyes never leaving his uncle's face. Iroh can see the struggle in his eyes—the struggle that seems to have never left his nephew, his _son_ , since he was thirteen and bandaged and sailing the seas in search for his honor—but he will not, cannot, relent.  
  
Zuko inhales sharply. "I understand, Uncle." He stands up and straightens his robes, leaving his tea almost untouched and hand prints singed onto the table. The sound of the door closing behind him echoes with a sense of finality Iroh did not expect.  
  
 _Oh, Zuko,_ Iroh thinks, _I am so sorry I could not help you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like a lot of authors portray Iroh as someone who will always support Zuko, even if it compromises his own morals, and while I genuinely love that version of Iroh (more than I can put into coherent words), I wanted to do something a little different. (Okay, I was being a little cruel because THAT'S WHAT THE MEME ASKED FOR DON'T BLAME ME.)
> 
> Yes, Iroh has special tea, if you know what I'm saying.


	3. gentle retribution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another take on "The Southern Raiders," in which Aang isn't the first person to meet Katara at the dock.

Katara is sitting on the dock, her toes skimming the gold-flecked surface of the lake and her shoulders hunched forward. Her hand can’t stop stroking her mother's necklace—she can’t tell if it’s an apology or a good-bye—and she doesn’t react when she feels someone sit down next to her.  
  
“I understand, you know,” Zuko murmurs. He is the calm to her constant fidgeting, his hands resting quietly on his knees.  
  
Katara turns her head, just barely. “Understand what?”  
  
“Why you didn’t do it,” he replies simply.  
  
Katara’s legs stop swinging and her hand falls from her neck. Her whole body shifts as she faces him, her eyes— _those eyes_ , he thinks—locking onto his. “Do you? Because I _don't_ , Zuko. I feel like—like I’ve _failed_ my mother by letting that _monster_ go free!”  
  
Zuko moves to grasp her hand, but changes his mind at the last second, barely brushing her arm. “You didn’t fail her, Katara,” he says as gently as he can. “You did what you thought was right, even though you didn’t think you wanted to.”  
  
Her eyes glisten, with tears or with something else, Zuko isn’t sure. “How would you know?” she whispers, so low he would have missed it if it weren’t for his godforsaken hearing (Zuko had never disliked his sharp hearing until he overheard what was going on in the tent after he had asked for Sokka’s advice— _no_ ).  
  
“I had the chance to steal the Ava—Aang’s bison in Ba Sing Se. But my uncle found me before I could and made me realize that what I was doing wouldn’t have done any good for anyone, let alone for myself.”  
  
Katara snorts. “Nice to know you have a soft spot for animals.” Zuko’s eyes narrow infinitesimally.  
  
“What I’m _trying_ to say is that I had found Appa with the intention to steal him and use him as bait to capture Aang,” Zuko blurted. “But when my moment finally came, I thought about what I had become—a mask-wearing bandit wanted by the Fire Nation _and_ the Earth Kingdom.” He pauses, bracing himself for what he wants to say next. “That’s not who I am, Katara. I am the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, and the rightful heir to the throne. I didn’t want to fall even lower than I had.”  
  
He’s sure there are tears in her eyes because he sees several slip from her eyes, leaving glistening tracks down her cheeks, and her arms are suddenly around his neck and her knees are digging into his thigh but he doesn’t mind because Katara is _hugging_ him, even though he’s not entirely sure why.  
  
“Oh, Zuko, I—” she squeezes him a little tighter “—I’ll never forgive him, but I _am_ ready to forgive you.”  
  
Zuko manages to overcome his shock, and he wraps an arm around her waist, burying his other hand in her hair. “Thank you, Katara,” he breathes into her ear.  
  
Neither of them can see Aang standing on the hill behind the dock, glider clutched in his fist and a scowl on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's fair to say that "The Southern Raiders" is one of my favorite episodes because a) it's in season three, b) I love field trips with Zuko, c) character development is the best thing, and d) five words: Zuko and Katara as ninjas.


	4. reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another drabble ask box meme I sent to Like A Dove (as usual).

“I understand why you visited me. We’re the only two left, you know,” Katara tells him over a steaming cup of tea in her tiny igloo in the South Pole. He looks old, so old—his hair is whiter than hers—but his eyes shine just as brightly as they did when he was seventeen and a newly crowned Fire Lord. His smile is how she’s always remembered it: genuine yet mischievous, and somehow still shy. “I know,” he murmurs, “but I would have come to you anyway.”


	5. for the last time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same as the last chapter. Literal drabble series, sorry I'm not sorry.

It’s not until Katara is in all white, breathing in the muggy air of the Fire Nation for the first time in months that feel like lifetimes, that she realizes that she could have saved him from the assassin’s dart, as he had saved her from his sister’s lightning, that she would have given her life for his in a heartbeat, as he nearly had for her.


End file.
